"If The Number Of Islamic Terror Attacks Continues At The Current Rate, Candlelight Vigils Will Soon Be The Number-One Cause Of Global Warming. "

Black Friday Posts New Single Day Record For Gun Background Checks At More Than 200,000

TINLEY PARK, IL – MARCH 11: Danny Egan (L) helps a customer shop for a handgun at Freddie Bear Sports on March 11, 2015 in Tinley Park, Illinois. According to a survey conducted by the University of Chicago 32 percent of Americans own guns, down from a high of 50 percent of the population in the 1970s and early 1980s. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Robust economy.

Via USA Today:

The FBI was flooded Friday with more than 200,000 background check requests for gun purchases, setting a new single day record, the bureau reported Saturday.

In all, the FBI fielded 203,086 requests on Black Friday, up from the previous single-day highs of 185,713 last year and 185,345 in 2015. The two previous records also were recorded on Black Friday.

Gun checks, required for purchases at federally licensed firearm dealers, are not a measure of actual gun sales. The number of firearms sold Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer.[…]

Federal authorities, meanwhile, have for years openly complained that incomplete databases and staff shortages make it difficult to keep pace with the constant stream of background checks required of most new gun purchasers and efficiently trace firearms used in crimes.

In a statement earlier this week, Sessions said NICS “is critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those that are prohibited from owning them.” He said the Texas shooting “revealed that relevant information may not be getting reported to the NICS — this is alarming and it is unacceptable.”

While gun sales have been surging in recent years — largely driven by fears of more restrictive gun laws proposed during the Obama administration — gun check numbers had leveled off in the first months of the pro-gun Trump administration.